


Left Behind #7

by grownupgeekgirl



Series: Left Behind [7]
Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 08:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10940619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grownupgeekgirl/pseuds/grownupgeekgirl
Summary: Carter couldn't explain why he kept going back to Granger.





	Left Behind #7

Carter never needed to explain why he pulled Granger out of the burning vehicle. "Brothers in arms," "battle buddies," "no man left behind," whatever. That last one was fucking Marine bullshit, but it was true, he wasn't going to leave Granger behind. (Jenny hadn't believed any of those lines...but then, she'd always known Dwayne better than he'd known himself.) Back home, retraining for a job that wasn't about getting his ass shot off every time he turned around, he couldn't have explained why he turned to the Chinese. He turned (seriously, why the fuck did he ever think he'd turned Colby?) Granger because he didn't want to do it alone...or maybe he went to Granger for those manuals so he could be caught. But Granger gave him the manuals, and kept giving him shit, and finally he brought Granger over. (They were in it together again, and that was what mattered.)

When he got busted...when GRANGER turned on him, and pretended he was Captain America, Mr. Loyal and Patriotic, Mr. NOT A SPY...Carter wasn't angry, not after the first moment of betrayal. He was oddly relieved. Maybe Granger turned himself in, too. (Maybe Colby could get out of the mess Dwayne had gotten him into.)

Months in jail. A moment in transit. An explosion and a key. A KEY. As they ran from the crash site, Carter let himself believe, for just a moment, that Granger had his back, just like he'd had Granger's...Colby's.

Dwayne nearly fired on the FBI in the train station. Colby stopped him, asked him what he was thinking...when he said it was because he wasn't going back to jail, Dwayne was coming closer to saying what he meant. He didn't want to go back to jail alone. He didn't want to be left behind, separated from Colby. Colby could be executed for treason, and it would be Dwayne's fault. Dwayne didn't want to live with that - not if he could help it.

Aboard the ship, they were safe. They were heading for international waters, and then China. They'd start new lives in China, without any expectation that they'd put their lives on the line for their country or patriotism, or whatever bullshit they were feeding raw recruits these days.

Dwayne was as shocked by the interrogation as Colby. He trusted Colby. With his life, with his soul (with his heart). The more pain Lancer put Colby through, the more Dwayne wanted to rescue him one more time. In that final moment, Dwayne stopped justifying, explaining, hiding from the reason he kept saving Colby.

Dwayne stopped thinking. He shot Lancer, knowing he'd be shot immediately. And as he lay on the deck of the ship, struggling to breathe, fading away, he heard Colby's partner shouting for help, heard Colby's friends begging him to come back...this time, though, Dwayne knew it would be OK. All he'd ever wanted was to be where Colby was, to live in a world where Colby was OK. And if it meant he bled to death on a rusty metal floor as the big man (the big man...David...had protected Colby until the end, he'd keep on doing that) brought Colby back, then that was OK, too. Dwayne just didn't want to be left behind.

Dwayne Carter never said he loved Colby Granger. Maybe he never needed to.


End file.
